Basil and Oregano by Melissa Capriglione

 
Basil and Oregano by Melissa Capriglione

My Rating: ★★

Basil Eyres is doing everything in her power to be the top student at Porta Bella Magiculinary Academy. They have big dreams, and one of them is to eventually open their own restaurant. However, Porta Bella is a very expensive school. Basil and their friends are competing to be the top student so that they can continue to get scholarships that reimburse their parents for their education. Things are harder now that Arabella Oregano, the daughter of a famous chef, has transferred to the academy. Basil really likes her, but will their friendship and potential for more be put on the line over who will be the next top student?

This book is such a cute read. We follow Basil, a student of a prestigious academy where the competition for top student puts everyone at odds. However, Basil has found true friends during their time at the school, which is something that’s helping them keep afloat. Everything changes when Arabella enters the picture. Not only is Arabella the daughter of an extremely well known chef, but she’s also Basil’s crush, friend, and newest competition.

While I loved the story, it wasn’t truly cohesive. The timeline made absolutely no sense and the real reason behind the need to be top student was not explained until way later. There’s a lot going on at all times and a lot of things don’t make sense because we barely touch on them. The story seems to want to touch on several things but it just doesn’t spend enough time on a lot of those things. I think it would’ve worked out better if this was a multiple volume story that was able to expand on each of many of these things so that they made sense being in the story. Even the top student part of the plot, which is a major plot, ultimately fails due to the lack of time spent on expanding on the basic points of it. I think it also would’ve helped a lot if the story had a solid timeline.

Even though I have several valid complaints about the story, I really did enjoy reading it, which is part of why I wish there was time spent on developing basically anything outside of Basil and Arabella’s friendship turned romance. However, there are a lot of good things. While the book barely touches the surface of Basil’s friendships, it was clear that their friends at school are very supportive and positive relationships. We also get a glimpse at how things are not always how they appear on the surface, which is nice because we see a bit of how Basil perceives things and then some of what’s actually happening. I loved that the author made sure that they covered pronouns and gender identity as well as there being so many LGBT+ characters throughout the story.

All in all, I think this story had a lot of potential and could’ve been a lot better if it was fully developed. It has a lot going for it, but it seemed like the artwork carried the story more than its own storytelling. I am looking forward to checking more of the author’s work out because there is a lot of potential here, and I think that they will come out with some great things as they continue to work on developing their ideas in their storytelling.